WickedLocal.com – By Kyle Cheney
Boston – Lawmakers, state officials, crime victims, transgender people and advocates of all stripes crammed a stiflingly hot hearing room Tuesday as they lobbied the Judiciary Committee to support wide-ranging bills, including proposals to enhance protection for stalking victims, to further define biomedical research and to include transgender people in the state’s non-discrimination statutes.
Like many hearings of the Judiciary Committee, this one began in the early afternoon and in a frenzied atmosphere, with large crowds spilling into the hallways and court officers ushering journalists out of the aisles. Only when Senate Chair Robert Creedon Jr. had court officers open up a retractable wall were attendees able to squeeze into the uncomfortably sweltering room.